"Karma Chameleon" is a song by British New Wave band Culture Club, featured on the group's 1983 album Colour by Numbers. The song spent three weeks at #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 starting on 4 February 1984, becoming the group's biggest hit and only US #1 among their many top ten hits. "Karma Chameleon" was also a huge global hit, hitting #1 in sixteen countries worldwide, and the top ten in several more. Sleeve by David Levine Photographer
In the group's home country of the United Kingdom, it became the second Culture Club single to reach the top of the UK Singles Chart (after "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me"), where it stayed for six weeks in September and October 1983, and became the UK's biggest-selling single of the year 1983. It is widely regarded as Culture Club's signature song.
In an interview, Culture Club frontman Boy George explained: "The song is about the terrible fear of alienation that people have, the fear of standing up for one thing. It's about trying to suck up to everybody. Basically, if you aren't true, if you don't act like you feel, then you get Karma-justice, that's nature's way of paying you back."
The song won Best British Single at the 1984 Brit Awards. The group performed the song as a finale when they appeared in the 1986 episode "Cowboy George" of The A-Team.
The music video is set in Mississippi in 1870. It depicts a large group of black and white people in late 1800s dress, including some dressed in red, gold, and green (as George sings in the song). Boy George is dressed in what would be known as his signature look; colorful costume, fingerless gloves, long braids, and a black derby. A pickpocket and jewelry thief is seen wandering through the crowd, stealing from unsuspecting folks. The band and other people board a riverboat, "The Chameleon", as Boy George continues to sing. The thief is discovered cheating at cards, and is forced to return his ill-gotten gains and walk the plank at the points of ladies' parasols. As the video ends, day has turned to evening and the party continues on the boat as it cruises down the river. "Karma Chameleon" was filmed at Desborough Island in Weybridge during the summer of 1983.
Trivia
The prominent harmonica part was played by Judd Lander, who had been a member of Merseybeat group The Hideaways in the 1960s. The song was originally to be called "Cameo Chameleon". The band was recorded in interviews in mid-1983 stating this was to be the title of their next single.
Likely because of the lyric "I'm a man without conviction," and the chorus, which includes the word chameleon, "Karma Chameleon" has been used by several politicians in political ads. In 2006, Britain's Labour Party used "Karma Chameleon" as the theme song for a series of political advertisements against Conservative party leader David Cameron in the 2006 UK local Elections.
